A case study of the influence of bibliographic instruction on the information seeking skills of undergraduates attending a for-profit university

The qualitative case study examined the influence of bibliographic instruction on the information seeking skills of undergraduates at a for-profit university. The site for the study was a for-profit university located in a northern county of Metropolitan Atlanta. Consenting undergraduates at the for-profit university served as the study's sample, through participation in focus group sessions and the completion of the James Madison Information Literacy Test (ILT) (JMU, 2010). The conceptual framework for the study included the competency standards published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), entitled Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, and Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956). The study's research revealed that undergraduates prefer to perform research independent of assistance from professional librarians, and they expressed self-reliance in their research practices. The study further revealed the need for professional librarians, faculty and curriculum developers, at for-profit institutions, to collaborate in the design of a bibliographic instruction program targeting undergraduates, as part of an information literacy initiative to improve the research skills of these students.